Tumbleweed Soup, the Recipe

Tumbleweed Soup, The Recipe

You asked for it and here it is. Tumbleweed Soup has been a part of our visits to numerous Navajo and Pueblo communities in thew Southwest. As we share the soup we have frequently been told some great stories about this botanical "illegal alien." Several of you have asked for the recipe so here it is. This is one of several dozen information sheets the non-profit organization, Hunger Grow Away has available at no charge. If you would like to have a complete list please email me at hungergrowaway@q.com You can also check out the Hunger Grow Away website at www.hungergrowaway.com

Tumbleweed Soup

Too often we overlook some of the most nutritious plants that grow so willingly in our gardens and fields. The common dandelion is a very healthy food, as are lambsquarters, purslanes and amaranths. In a culture that harvests its food from the supermarket and depends on fast food restaurants to prepare their meals, we have not only become disconnected from the wild harvest, but from the family vegetable garden as well. We can reconnect with regional and cultural traditions, bring generations together and improve our nutrition when we make our food fun instead of fast; our meals a time to share with the family rather than the TV; and when we prepare our own dinner as a creative experience rather than rely on canned, frozen or packaged meals with artificial colors and flavoring, laced with preservatives and other additives. We can live healthier and have fun doing it.

In an attempt to make dinner an adventure and cooking fun
we humbly suggest TUMBLEWEED SOUP

Tumbleweed soup can be a great party, festival or celebration dish that makes for great conversation. This is more than just a meal. It calls for the active participation of all the guests and family members. It is recommended that this nutritious meal be used at special occasions where extended family and/or special guests are going to be present. Each dinner guest can be asked to bring one or more of the ingredients and all of the guests should be a part of the meal preparation.

The ultimate goal of tumbleweed soup is to actively engage all participants in the meal, regardless of age or physical limitations. This is a healthy and nutritious meal that can be enjoyed by all ages, including those with diabetes and those with poor teeth, or no teeth at all. It is low in fats, moderately low in carbohydrates and high in fiber. And it tastes good too.

Ingredients:
*2 cups tender new shoots from spring tumbleweed (Russian thistle, Salsola iberica)
*2 medium white potatoes, can substitute sunchokes
*1 medium sweet potato
*1 garden fresh onion, best with tops
*2-3 cloves fresh garlic
*3-5 garden fresh carrots
*1-2 stalks celery
1 parsnip
1 turnip or small rutabaga
1-2 apples
1 cup cabbage or kale
*1 large garden fresh tomato
*1 cup diced bell peppers any color
*½ cup chiles, fresh , frozen or canned.
*1 cup favorite salsa, best to use home made family recipe made with fresh from the garden vegetables
*1 cup cooked beans, garbanzo, pinto or your favorite
*½ cup (4oz) nopalitos (cactus pads), fresh harvested or canned
½ cup Shredded cheese for garnish
Juice from 1 lemon
*a great sense of humor
*a dash of adventure
*a pinch of courage to try something different

Items marked with an asterisk (*) are most important, others are optional. This can be adjusted to include what is seasonally available from your garden. Each dinner guest or family member can bring their favorite vegetable to add to the pot. Note: regional resources can be substituted, such as dandelions or mustard greens.

Optional additions, all harvested fresh from the garden:
Indian spinach, Lambsquarters
Red Aztec spinach (a variety of lambsquarters)
Purslane
Chard, stalks and leaves
Amaranth leaves
Beet greens
Wild onion, or garlic leaves
Squash
Anything else in season, either wild harvested or from the garden. Each dinner guest or family member can bring a wild harvested, traditional or uncommon vegetable favorite.

Herbs, fresh from the garden:
Each dinner guest or family member can bring a small amount of their favorite herb to add to the pot.
Basil
Cilantro
Fennel
Chives
Parsley
Oregano
Rosemary
Thyme

Preparation:
Before you begin, turn off the TV.
Wash tumbleweed shoots and place in large soup pot. (If tumbleweed isn’t available you can use fresh dandelion, amaranth, lambsquarters or mustard or spinach leaves).
Dice onion and garlic, add to the tumbleweed.
Barely cover with water and bring to boil.
Use medium or low heat and cook for 15 minutes, or until tumbleweed becomes soft. Stir frequently.
Add small amount of water if necessary.
While the tumbleweed is cooking each participant can peel, wash and dice their vegetable contribution. Note: dicing the vegetables can make them easier for guests with dental problems to chew, it also assures that each dinner guest will get some of each vegetable.
After tumbleweed is cooked, place in a blender, along with the broth, and puree.
Pour back into soup pot and add the fresh vegetables, including the chiles. Do not add salt.
Cook on medium heat for 15 to 12 minutes while guests wash and prepare the herbs.
Add nopalitos, salsa, lemon juice and herbs, cook for another 10 minutes or until vegetables are done.

Note: peelings can be composted to become the soil for next year’s garden.

Serving tumbleweed soup:
Let soup cool slightly for about 10 minutes while each dinner guest sets their own place at the table and fresh juice is poured for everyone. Before you begin to dine turn off all cell phones and put on some good music.
Whole juice has less sugar than fruit drinks and punches, fewer additives and more nutrition. Apple, orange, tomato or vegetable juice goes will with tumbleweed soup.
Corn tortillas, corn bread or low fat corn chips and fresh salsa can be served as a companion to the soup. The corn products are nutritious and better for a diabetic diet than white flour based breads or tortillas.
Ladle one cup of soup into each bowl and garnish with shredded cheddar cheese, a teaspoon of sour cream and a mixture of finely chopped chives, cilantro or parsley and diced red or yellow bell peppers. Several corn chips can be placed along the side of the bowl to add eye appeal
Tumbleweed soup makes a great dip for the chips, warm or cold.
Guests are encouraged to engage in active conversation, sharing memories of yesterday’s foods, cooking and dining, what was good about the family sitting at the table together, friends and neighbors dropping by, festivals, feasts and celebrations that centered around the joy of sharing a meal. Thoughts can also be shared about tomorrow’s meals, preparation, what is healthy and what isn’t, why everyone can be a part of the preparation and the after dinner chores.

After the meal:
All uneaten foods should be refrigerated as soon as possible to prevent spoilage.
Children present should clean the table and wash the dishes.
There should be pleasant conversation, music, dessert, coffee or tea and time to enjoy life after a good meal.

Uranium Mining

We live in New Mexico and a good portion of the work we do with Hunger Grow Away www.hungegrgowaway.com is with the Native American communities in the American Southwest. We have learned much from our Navajo and Pueblo friends. We have shared their laughter, and their grief. Unfortunately, much of this grief is the result of the uranium mining that was done in the 1950’s and 60’s. It was these people who went down into the mines and brought home the yellow dust. Many of the mines were on their tribal lands, and the mining companies did not feel the obligation to even close up the spent and abandoned mines.

The radioactive waste from the mining operations contaminated the land and the water. It was carried in the wind, into the homes, absorbed by their lungs, and even found its way into their food. My wife Tomi and I have been to the funerals of some of these miners who have died of cancer and lung diseases. We have heard the stories of the sheep and other animals born with deformities, the livestock dying from the water and the grass poisoned with the dust carried on the wind.

The Navajo tell the story of the “Yellow Choices.” It is told in various versions, and one is related in a fascinating book, Visits with the Old Indian Storyteller, by Tomi Jill Folk. This story is reprinted here with permission from the author.

The Yellow Choices
Long ago, the Great Mystery came to the people,and they were hungry, and the Great Mystery told the people, “You have a choice. You have a yellow choice. You can plant and grow, and your corn will have yellow pollen, and that will remind you of the friendship of the sun, and you will live in happiness and harmony, and you will know peace. This you grow upon the earth.

Or you can dig into the earth, you can wound and scar the Mother, and take the yellow stones. And if you do this, you will know suffering and pain and ignorance and great sorrow. And your children will pay for many generations yet to come for your ignorance and folly.”

Mount Taylor is a sacred mountain to the Navajo,and the nearby Pueblos of Acoma and Laguna, the Zuni and the Hopi. Yet greed, (and a lack of concern for the basic rights and respect for the religious traditions of these people), is driving a new wave of uranium mining, and this beautiful and sacred mountain is one of their targets. We attended a public hearing conducted without notice by the Nuclear Regulatory Agency last fall. At this meeting they explained the new method of mining called in-situ mining.

This involves the use of millions and millions of gallons of water. This land is desert. Water is precious. Water is life. They use chemicals to dissolve the uranium and the contaminated waste water is pumped back into the ground where there is the very real danger that it will enter the aquifers that supply water, not only to the native communities but the cities like Albuquerque, Soccoro, Las Lunas and many others. As the wind carried the yellow dust of yesterday’s mining, the water may well carry the poison of greed far greater distances tomorrow.

The claim is that this is needed for our energy independence. They tell us that this uranium is destined for nuclear power plants, and the intention is to build more of these plants. But aside from the risks that accompany the mining, there is a problem of waste disposal. The construction of nuclear power plants is incredibly expensive, the energy produced is also very expensive, and the nuclear power plant itself is an ideal target for terrorist attack.

There are safe, renewable resources, primarily wind and solar power. The development of these safe alternatives would employ far more people, are much safer for us today, and all of tomorrow’s children.

The uranium mined could well be used in the creation of a new generation of nuclear weapons. That we could even contemplate this will ignite a new arms race with the potential for horrendous consequences at the very time when we all need to be working toward a peaceful cooperation to solve the problems of climate change and global warming. This new interest in mining is a flawed and very short sighted effort based on fear by some and greed by others. There is a better way.

John Denver wrote a song Let Us Begin, also known as What Are We Making Weapons for? And performed it around the world including the former Soviet Union where he served as a muscical good will ambassodor. He was joined in many performances of this powerful peace song by the popular Russian tenor, Alexander Gradsky. This song appears on the John Denver CD, One World. This is a powerful message for peace. I encourage you to seek the lyrics to thsi song, or hear it on it on YouTube.

How can we possible put all of tomorrow’s children at risk like this? How can we scar a sacred mountain like Mt Taylor? How can we justify poisoning the earth while ignoring the logical alternatives? How can we be so short-sighted?

I applaud the leaders of Acoma, Laguna, Zuni, Hopi, the Navajo and the other Native Americans who have the vision and wisdom to fight this. I also ask that you, the readers of this blog speak up, write to your representatives in congress, Make your voices heard.
Thank you.
Peace, Hank Bruce